Lost Valley

Lost Valley Campground is located off of Hwy 43 between Boxley and Ponca. There is a hiking trail there that is a little over a 2 mile round trip. This trail consists of waterfalls, with the most popular one being Eden Falls, Eden Falls Cave which has a 30' waterfall inside it, Cobb Cave named this because of corn cobbs left there by indians, and a natural bridge. This place is covered with wild flowers in the spring.

This is an old schoolhouse that you pass as you drive into Lost Valley

This bridge is at the beginning of the hiking trail.

A dry creek bed along the trail.

Before the Color Peak

Hwy 74 bridge in the background and the Ponca Low Water Bridge in front.

Roark Bluff on the Buffalo River at Steel Creek

Fall is in the air!!

Melissa and I just spent an awesome week in the Ozarks. We stayed in our favorite cabin which is the Osage. The Osage is one of three cabins called the Ozark Bluff Dwellers. We highly recommend these cabins. I will add a link to them on this site.

We spent the whole week driving and hiking through the Buffalo River Region and the Ozark National Forest. The fall colors were not quite to peak when we arrived last Sunday but they sure put on a grand show before we left.

I'll be adding several posts in the upcomimg days to document our stay. I am starting with some elk shots. I tried to photograph the elk in early October but they were no where to be found. This trip was different. They were out in the fields of Boxley Valley early and late in the day. The peak of the rut has long since ended but the bulls are still bugling and there is an occassional spar between bulls. If you have never heard a bull elk bugle, you have got to make a trip up there to see and hear them.

I'll go for now but stay tuned for more posts to come.

In Search of Elk

I made a drive up to Ponca early Saturday morning with the intent of photographing elk. My brother David and his family are up from Texas visiting his in-laws in Harrison so he met me there. We drove through Boxley Valley looking for our subject but visibility was realy poor. There was a heavy fog in the valley and even if the elk were there, taking a picture of them was out of the question. As it turns out the elk did not come out of the forest on that day. According to a lady at the Elk Education Center in Ponca, the elk are feeding on acorns and that tends to keep them in the woods. They still venture into the fields but there is no way to predict when. It would be a case of the right place at the right time to get a photo. Oh well...we drove down to Steel Creek to check it out and ran in to Michael Dougherty while we were there. Michael is a local photographer that earns his living photographing the Buffalo River region and is especially good at photographing elk. I am adding his website to my links so you can check it out. He is always full of information about where the elk might be or where to take landscape photos, etc. After visiting with him for a while, David and I went down to the low water bridge in Ponca and took a few shots there. The leaves are starting to change color now. Below are a couple of examples.

The Buffalo River from the Low Water Bridge in Ponca (In the fog)

A bluff down river from the low water bridge.

Longpool Falls 2

What an interesting weather year this has been in Arkansas. We have experienced floods, tornados, and the remnants of two hurricanes. When Hurricanes Gustav and Ike made their way into the state we got more than our share of wind and rain. Ike was especially impressive to me because our power went out in the middle of the night and I was wide awake. I could hear the wind howling and the rain slamming into the house. I looked outside and the trees were reaching for the earth. Of course, I had to experience this so out the front door I went at 2:30 am. I stood out there for at least 20 minutes facing into the wind. I even spread my arms out once as if I was riding high up on the bow of the Titanic. Every once in a while a gust would push me backwards a step or two. I couldn't help but wonder what it must be like to actually experience hurricane force winds. After all, these were maybe 50 mph gusts at best. I finally had my weather fix and went back inside. When the adrenaline rush subsided I went back to bed.

Now back to the rainfall. All of the rain we received gave me visions of waterfalls dancing in my head. So...on the Sunday after Ike left the state, Melissa and I went back to a fall I visited earlier this year. Long Pool Falls is located off of highway 7 north of Dover Arkansas. We drove down to Long Pool Recreation Area and the first thing we noticed was that there was absolutely no one else there. Yee Haw!! We had the fall all to ourselves. We did the short hike to the fall and I set up my camera and tripod and shot away. It was good to be back in the woods after a long summer. Fall is around the corner and we can't wait.

The first two photos below are of Long Pool Falls and the last one is a cascade downstream of the fall.

It Tastes Like Chicken

Melissa and I were on our way back from a wedding in El Dorado Arkansas when we saw this Timber Rattlesnake. I wanted to make a stop by my deer camp on the way back so I took a detour. We were on Hwy 274 between Hampton and Tinsman when I saw something on the road ahead that looked like a stick. As we zoomed by I saw that it was a snake. I turned around while Melissa grabbed my camera for me. I got out of the car and walked to it. It saw me coming so it coiled up and serenaded us with its rattle. The last picture below was actually taken by Melissa from inside the car just before we drove away. I have never eaten Rattlesnake but I hear it taste like chicken.

Big Dam Bridge

I took some night shots at this bridge several months ago but didn't like the results. I decided to give it another try with some longer exposures. I like these a lot better. What do you think?

Two Rivers Park

As mentioned in an earlier blog, I made another trip (actually 2) out to Two Rivers park. Two Rivers park is located in West Little Rock off of highway 10. It has hiking and biking trails and some nature trails. The trail I took the following pictures from is 3 miles long. It is paved the whole way and is even wheelchair accessible. It goes out to a peninsula that you can see when you travel south on the I-430 bridge into Little Rock.When my brother was with me we saw easily over 100 deer. Not so many on a return trip with Melissa.

One of the many herds living in the park.

Whitetail Doe watching us stroll on by.

Whitetail Buck in Velvet.

Melissa at the peninsula watching traffic go by on the I-430 bridge.

I-430 bridge facing N. Little Rock.

Feathered Friends

I took a walk recently around lake Willastein in Maumelle to see what I could see. Well......

Killdeer: This is a very unique bird. It builds its nest on the ground. If anyone or anything ventures too close it will pretend that it has a broken wing and lead trouble away. When it's far enough away it flys off. Cool huh? If you look closely you can see eggs below her.

This is her future family.

Scissor-Tailed Flycatcher...I wonder how it got its name. Hmm

Canadian Geese: There was a pretty strong wind blowing in off of the lake. The geese would face into the wind a spread their wings.

4th of July

I hope everyone had a great Independence Day. Melissa and I took in a little of Maumelle's 4th fest celebration. Then we went and secured our spot for the fireworks. I took the pictures below at Maumelle's annual firework show.

Macro Photography

A friend of mine let me borrow a macro filter that attaches to one of my existing lenses. A macro filter or a macro lens allows you to take super close up shots. It's great for wildflowers. The two flowers below are from my first experience with macro photography.

Black-Eyed Susan

Tickseed

Mimosa Bloom

It's that time of year when the mimosa trees are in bloom. I took this shot at Two Rivers Park in west Little Rock. This park is on the edge of the Arkansas River. I'm going to spend some more time out there and see what kind of creatures I can stir up.

Magnolia Blossom

It has been a slow few weeks for landscape and nature photography. Instead, I recently shot a little league baseball game and also a high school skeet shooting tournament. Between the two, I took over 800 pictures. Whew! Anyway, I thought I would dig into my photo archives and post a picture since it has been so long. I took the shot of this magnolia blossom in April of 2006 at Eden Park near Destin Florida. The soft edges on the picture were done by using a double exposure blur technique. I hope you like it.

Maumelle Sunset

I went out on the deck one evening last week and noticed some nice color starting to develop in the sky. I rushed back in and grabbed my camera bag and tripod and headed out the door. There is a new neighborhood being developed near the house on what was once a tree covered hillside. With the trees gone (which I hate) there is a wide open view of the western skyline. I set up my tripod and camera and waited. Before long, the color really started to pop. I took several shots at several exposures until the sun disappeared behind the horizon. It's amazing how fast the sun moves when your struggling to get that magic exposure. The following are two of about seventy shots.

Wetlands

I have always had a fascination with swamps and cypress trees. Some of the best wetland shots are right off of the side of the road. The next three photos were taken from the side of a highway.

This shot and the one below it was taken from highway 70 near the Galloway exit just east of N. Little Rock Arkansas

I actually posted this one last October but since I was on the subject of things that are swampy I thought I would show it again. This is a Tupelo Swamp off of highway 165 in the town of Humnoke Arkansas.

This is not the best picture in the world but the subject is interesting. This is a Champion Tree and the largest Cypress tree in the state of Arkansas. It is also the largest tree in 40 of the 50 states in America. This tree is located in the White River National Wildlife Refuge in East Arkansas. It measures 120' tall with a circumference of 43 feet. A Champion Tree is the largest tree of a species in the state. The Arkansas Forestry Commission keeps a list of our Champion Trees. This list shows the species, the size and where the tree is located. There is even a link to the national champion tree list.

Tim Ernst

I finally did it! I attended my first photography workshop with Tim Ernst. Tim has been teaching workshops for years. He lives in a cabin (Cloudland) on Cave Mountain Rd. near Boxley Arkansas. On his property he has recently built the Buffalo River Gallery to display his work. This gallery is open by appointment only but it is also where he teaches the processing part of his workshops.

There were six students (counting me) in Saturday's class. We met at 6 am in Ponca. I left home at 2:00 am to get there. Tim gathered us around his vehicle while he went over some preliminary information then we set off for Steel Creek to shoot Roark Bluff. Each of us did our own thing, moving from spot to spot and shooting away. Tim would come by and check on each of us at different times and offer advice and recommendations. We shot until the sun burned through the fog which was close to 9:30. Then, we all followed Tim in a convoy for a 30 minute drive to Cloudland. The last 7 1/2 miles of the drive is on a dirt road. The first mile or so is very steep uphill and curvy. The last mile or so is very bumpy and rough. Despite that it was well worth the drive. Tim's cabin is on the edge of a bluff overlooking the wilderness and the Buffalo River far below.

Whe we arrived, he took us on a tour of the cabin and we met his wife Pam. Pam is a very important part of the workshop. She cooks the lunch. Today's menu was barbeque beef, pork and chicken, barbeque beans, potato salad, chips and drink. Not only did she prepare the lunch but she also baked fresh piping hot chocolate cookies for an afternoon snack. We actually started the processing part of the worksop before lunch but it wasn't long before her voice proclaimed on the telecom system that lunch was ready. We all scurried from the Gallery building back up to the cabin and ate our lunch out on the deck. After lunch we went back to work and actually did not finish until 6:00. My classmates were from Houston Texas, Iowa, Pea Ridge Arkansas, Springdale Arkansas, and Pocola Oklahoma. I learned a lot in this class. It was worth EVERY penny I paid to take it. In fact, I am signing up for a two day workshop that he is teaching next spring. I HIGHLY recommend his workshop to anyone that is serious about photography and wants to improve the quality of the images they take and the quality of the prints that are made. Tim's website is http://www.cloudland.net/. His site is also a link on my blog.

The following are just a few of the photos from the workshop.

Tim Ernst

Tim working with one of my classmates.
The Buffalo River and Roark Bluff in the fog.
Roark Bluff and a rock reflection.
Rocks on the shoreline.
The view from Tim's deck.
Another view from his deck.